Anyone else tired yet of seeing so many complaints about how a black woman who plays basketball is somehow less worthy than a white man when it comes to being released in a prisoner exchange?
And yet the arguments are still coming that Griner is somehow not as worthy as Paul Whelan. IMO - we try to get any prisoners home as we can regardless the "tests" of who is deemed more worthy.
But as an aside.. Col. Morris Davis (US Air Force, Ret) shares this:
I don't understand how prisoner exchanges are tied to worth. I mean, I get that international prisoner swaps like this probably have a calculation by some bureaucrat analyst team, but somehow I doubt it often revolves around issues of race, at least not consciously. There's likely implicit bias, I expect, but I bet the process by which they negotiate such exchanges involves talk about security concerns, public attention, & many "soft"/ social factors.
@FernLovebond @ChippySuave
negotiation process is a big deal and involves a lot of resources, skill and leverage.
there is a #book on it, pretty good one, called 'don't split the difference'.
on the other note, reps screaming about Whelan make him a horrible favor as they rise his value, which means russians will be asking more to exchange him.
reps are working for russians here, in many ways. add the division of the nation to it.
(Ukrainians do swaps all the time btw)